How do you manage your investment property?

How do you manage your investment property?

  • Property Manager

    Votes: 52 64.2%
  • Quickbooks / MYOB

    Votes: 4 4.9%
  • Excel / Office tools

    Votes: 13 16.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 12 14.8%

  • Total voters
    81
  • Poll closed .
Hi Guys,

Reading the Somersoft forum I can find mixed responses to how people manage their investment properties, I hope you don't mind sharing your thoughts about how you generally do it of prefer somebody else doing it for you.

It can be your Property Manager, DIY software such as Posh, MYOB, Quicken, Excel Spreadsheet or even just manila folders.



Cheers.

Tom
 
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Definately property manager/s for me.

My time is important to me. In saying that, there are times (fortunately, not too often) where the managers need managing.

Regards
Marty
 
Hi Guys,

Reading the Somersoft forum I can find mixed responses to how people manage their investment properties, I hope you don't mind sharing your thoughts about how you generally do it?

Cheers.

Tom
Interesting site Tom,myself i manage everything myself,nothing flash just a rent book,camera, an old ute,and various tools in the back,the last rental software i bought was just a waste of money,but your price for the use of the software seems high to me,but each too their own,20 years ago it was all so simple nowdays everyone takes their slice before the title holder gets 20 cents..willair..
 
Definately property manager/s for me.

My time is important to me. In saying that, there are times (fortunately, not too often) where the managers need managing.

Regards
Marty

Kissfan

I think he's refering to software for Managing the IP's

i.e. Property Manager Pro, Posh, The Rental Workook, MYOB, Quicken, Excel Spreadsheet, pen paper & calculator :confused:

The Poll and the Post below were confsuing though

If you're right though, we use Property Managers also :D
 
OH, If you mean software stuff, my accountant helped me make an excell sheet thingy with one page per house and then a summary page. ( i have to add another page but I am not too sure how to do it!...LOL)
 
Quicken.

Nothing flash needed so long as you know what categories to use it's a simple process to manage via any spreadsheet really.
 
Excel does the job for us.

1 page per property.
1 column per month.
1 row for income.
say 10-15 rows for expense categories.

Annual tally at any time (excl. depreciation - let the accountant sort that out), with about 5 min of keying each month.

Using property managers, we don't need all the bells and whistles for managing tenants, payment schedules, etc.


<brain dump>
The subscription based model can work very well for the service provider, as they have a recurring revenue stream, rather than having to continually sell new products. Web-based tools can be useful for people who don't always sit and work on the same computer, or who may not have access to install additional software. Software updates occur automatically - no downloads - but if my internet is unavailable, I'm stuffed.

And if I pay $24pm with 1 property, that's about $288pa. Even if I have to pay $500 for "high-end" management software, after 2 years it's free, compared to my ongoing $24pm.

And wouldn't I be wary of putting all that personal financial information on line? Will that be sold, or could it be hacked?

Horses for courses... no value for me. FWIW
</brain dump>
 
Kissfan

I think he's refering to software for Managing the IP's

i.e. Property Manager Pro, Posh, The Rental Workook, MYOB, Quicken, Excel Spreadsheet, pen paper & calculator :confused:

The Poll and the Post below were confsuing though

If you're right though, we use Property Managers also :D

I also self-manage, except when it comes to finding a new tenants. The agents have access to the tenancy black list databases and they have time to make lots of business hours phone calls at once (I work so don't have much time during lunch to make heaps of calls).

Otherwise I use ******** - saves me from paying the accountant to do the depreciation schedule every year, because ******** spits out a report that gets slotted straight into my tax return. The email reminders are really good too.

If you have long-term tenants, I don't think you really need a property manager. I'd rather spend my money fixing things in the place to increase the depreciables and keep the tenants happy. But if the place is turning over quite frequently (student accommodation, etc), then it can be a bit too time consuming to manage yourself. I wouldn't pay an agent more than 5% though - there's enough competition out there for you to get a good deal.
 
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Managing the IPs and Accounting for them are two separate things.

We use a PM for all, and I do the books on MYOB and give the completed files to the Accountant.
 
Kissfan

I think he's refering to software for Managing the IP's
Yep, think you're right redwing, lol. How embarrassment :eek:.

I'm very old school with my account/statement keeping. Individual folders for each IP, each with their annual statement sheet that is handwritten by me throught the financial year. These sheets are given to accountant with anything else applicable.

Very old fashioned but works for me.

Regards
Marty
 
I manage my own properties after disasters with PMs in the past. I have long term tenants and find it the most economical way to do it ... plus with a vested interest, I'm more diligent than any of my past PMs could hope to be!

As for the financial side, I have a spreadsheet in Excel which I find suitable to my needs. My accountant loves it and makes the job simple.

I like the site Tom. It isn't for me because I'm happy with the way I'm managing ... however, I can see the benefits for those who need an organised system. I don't think the costs are extreme ... not when you consider the cost of paying a PM a % every month.
 
I have a green folder that I have stuck the lease and rent statements (Centerlink sends them to me every fortnight) in. Oh and council rates and insurance doooflackies. First inspection brought up about $60 of maintainence/upgrade issues so I guess the receipt from Bunnings is going to go into the folder too :)

Very high tech stuff. Dunno why PMs charge so much, TBH.
 
Myob

I do both with my properties, I have 3 - 2 are through agents and 1 is self managed. I find that the work I put in is the same for all three and agents don't do much for me.

I use MYOB for record keeping and store all my paperwork electronically, saves me from having a huge filing cabinet. I try and reference MYOB to the electronic files but it takes a bit of work.
 
I use Property Manager Pro (love it) and I have created an expense category for each of our 8 properties matching it to the expense categories that are on the ATO taxation schedules for IP's.

The only thing I find challenging is working out the interest for each property as I don't have one property, one matching loan. The loans are big bulky loans, but I know the breakup and I just make sure that I apportion the right amount to each property. I know that at the end of the day you only put a bulk figure in but I need to be able to show the trail of what interest is claimed against each property. Also there is some non deductable debt that I have to also make sure I don't claim. I keep good records so it is not so hard.

I then do my tax using the online system (etax) but I don't lodge it myself I just print it off and send to my accountants who do with it what they need to in concert with our incomes/trust etc and it is a really good system.

Works for us anyhow!!
 
And to answer the bit about PM's or Self Managing, we have 5 properties with a PM and 3 we self manage as we have had those particular tenants for many years so ended up taking over the management ourselves.
 
We self manage, cos my time is not valuable.

If anything comes up, it just means less time wasted on TV. Too easy.
 
We gave away the self managing, much easier to get the PM to manage the properties across the various states

Never heard of rentwise before


I also self-manage, except when it comes to finding a new tenants. The agents have access to the tenancy black list databases and they have time to make lots of business hours phone calls at once (I work so don't have much time during lunch to make heaps of calls). Sounds good, REA's here in WA aren't so nice :( , what do they charge as a finders fee?

Otherwise I use Rentwise - saves me from paying the accountant to do the depreciation schedule every year, because Rentwise spits out a report that gets slotted straight into my tax return. The email reminders are really good too. We use a depreciation schedule from a Quantity Surveyor, shows each year required and is a simple entry, accountants doing the schedules went out of style along with knickerbockers didn't it?

If you have long-term tenants, I don't think you really need a property manager. I'd rather spend my money fixing things in the place to increase the depreciables and keep the tenants happy. But if the place is turning over quite frequently (student accommodation, etc), then it can be a bit too time consuming to manage yourself. I wouldn't pay an agent more than 5% though - there's enough competition out there for you to get a good deal.There's a thread here on the forum with Property Manager prices here in WA , If you offered 5% they'd be rolling around on the floor laughing for hrs, I think the standard is 9.35% incl GST plus a plethora of add ons..they will let you negotiate though (why not, they have room to move)
 
I have a green folder that I have stuck the lease and rent statements (Centerlink sends them to me every fortnight) in. Oh and council rates and insurance doooflackies. First inspection brought up about $60 of maintainence/upgrade issues so I guess the receipt from Bunnings is going to go into the folder too :)

Very high tech stuff. Dunno why PMs charge so much, TBH.

that's what i do, is there really much else to do ? granted I only have 2 ips (and the 2nd only for a few mths)
 
Is your folder green too? :D

I only have one IP, chances are we'll have two next year (unless the first one sells) and I'll have to get a second folder and probably *gasp* need to see an accountant. Second one will be much easier to manage than the first, it'll be next door, in a *good* area and all the associated good stuff that comes with being in a better area will apply.
 
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